Kodi is officially supported on a number of operating systems and hardware devices that are designed to be connected directly to a TV. Kodi runs well on what are relatively "underpowered" systems, thanks to hardware video decoding being common on nearly all supported platforms. These requirements don't include what might be required for some "advanced" features, such as PVR, which might require additional hardware.

Contents

1 Android

It is highly recommended for users to not make any purchases in anticipation of running Kodi on Android without first researching the device you want to buy. Before you do buy, make sure multiple people have verified that it works! If in doubt, do not buy that hardware!

The main aim for the Android port of Kodi is to foremost target media-players/set-top-boxes/sticks that connect to a large screen television and uses a standard remote control as its main interface device, (that is the same market as for HTPC).

3 Linux

3.1 Desktop

x86 or x86-64 processor such as: Intel Pentium 4/ Pentium M, AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron, or newer CPU (that support SSE2, which all CPUs made within the last 10-years does).

If your GPU/VPU does not support hardware video decoding then you will require a fast modern processor is required to decode some 1080p videos encoded in H.264, VC-1/WMV9, HEVC/H.265 VP9, etc

RAM

Recommended: 1GB or more in a HTPC media player appliance-like computer dedicated for Kodi, and 2GB or more in a computer for multipurpose use.

Graphics

Kodi will run on most graphics cards made within the last 10-years or so, though for good hardware video decoding support a little newer graphics cards can be required. This includes most cards from AMD/ATI, Intel, or NVIDIA which support OpenGL 2.0 or later.

The Kodi application generally only takes up between 100 to 200 MB of space, depending on how the binary is compiled. Technically speaking, if your hardware supports netbooting, you do not even require a internal storage for either the operating-system or for Kodi.

Minimum: 4 to 8GB

Recommended: 16GB or more

Depending on how big your video library is. Most of the space required for Kodi comes from the images/artwork cache, which can be adjusted: HOW-TO:Reduce disk space usage.

3.2 Embedded systems (ARM/MIPS-based hardware)

Other than OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics support being a must it is very hard to generalize Kodi hardware requirements for Linux-based operating-system distributions on ARM or MIPS based embedded systems. This is partially due to most of the work in this area still being early/on-going in development. For most ARM and MIPS-based devices, hardware video decoding support will also be needed for most high-definition videos, (and possibly even some standard-definition videos). Some newer and faster high-end ARM/MIPS chipset can decode some high-definition video using software video decoding, but those encoded with the latest video codecs.

Here are a few popular embedded hardware devices that are known to work with Kodi and Linux:

Raspberry Pi - Hardware video decoding support for H.264, MPEG-2, and VC-1. GUI is responsive on most light skins. Official supported by many third-party JeOS (Just enough Operating System) Linux distributions made for Kodi such as LibreELEC, OpenELEC, GeeXboX, Xbian, and OSMC

Various "Android" boxes - can run reinstalled with a Linux firmware and boot directly into Kodi. Hardware video decoding for most video codecs, GUI is very responsive on most skins. Running Linux and Kodi on these "Android boxes" will likely result in better performance and enhanced playback capabilities than running Kodi under Android.

3.3 JeOS implementations for Kodi

JeOS is the abbreviation (pronounced: Juice) for "Just Enough Operating System" as it applies to software appliances and embedded operating system are very easy too install and use implementations of Kodi for appliance usage on dedicated devices. Hiding a powerful combination of a Kodi and an almost hidden operating system for bare metal installation, a good JeOS implementation can make Kodi installation look, feel, and act just as any commercial set-top box or professional Smart TV media player, with many even offering automatic OTA (Over The Air) updates.

There are several of these JeOS (Just enough Operating System) Linux distributions out there made by third-parties that are specifically designed to make Kodi into an software appliance, these include LibreELEC, OSMC, GeeXboX, Xbian, Buildroot, and a few more.

These JeOS implementations for Kodi are all separate independent projects on their own, all aiming to provide the best complete media center software suite. These include a pre-configured version of Kodi and some pre-installed third-party addons/plugins as well as various custimizations or special extensions. Most of these JeOS implementations are extremely small and very fast booting Linux-based distribution, that are primarily designed to be booted from USB flash memory or a solid-state drive. JoOS are usually highly optimized distrobutions that takes it a step father and specifically targeted minimum set-top box / Smart TV appliance or single-board computer hardware setup based on low-power ARM SoC or Intel x86 processor mini-computers.

5 Windows

Note: Due to changes in code it may be possible that older hardware/videocards are no longer supported. If starting of Kodi fails then try upgrading to last available drivers (or beta drivers).

Windows Version

Minimum: Windows 7

Recommended: Windows 10

CPU

x86 or x86-64 processor such as: Intel Pentium 4/ Pentium M, AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron, or newer CPU (that support SSE2, which all CPUs made within the last 10-years does).

If your GPU/VPU does not support hardware video decoding then you will require a fast modern processor is required to decode some 1080p videos encoded in H.264, VC-1/WMV9, HEVC/H.265 VP9, etc

RAM

Recommended: 1GB or more in a HTPC media player appliance-like computer dedicated for Kodi, and 2GB or more in a computer for multipurpose use.

Graphics

GPU hardware must support at least level DirectX version 9.0c however the GPU software drivers must support the DirectX 11 Feature Level 9.1 (which means the DX11 API has been implemented in the GPU software driver to be compatible with DX9 hardware)

The Kodi application generally only takes up between 100 to 200 MB of space, depending on how the binary is compiled. Technically speaking, if your hardware supports netbooting, you do not even require a internal storage for either the operating-system or for Kodi.

Minimum: 4 to 8GB

Recommended: 16GB or more

Depending on how big your video library is. Most of the space required for Kodi comes from the images/artwork cache, which can be adjusted: HOW-TO:Reduce disk space usage.